Swap between striker and keeper in a five-kick pixel penalty duel with the computer or a friend on one screen.
Penalty Kick Showdown is a pixel-art penalty contest featuring chunky players, a noisy crowd and chiptune music. You take a penalty, then you stand in goal and try to stop one, and the two jobs keep alternating. After five kicks each, the side with more goals takes the match.
Before kickoff you type in names and choose a team for each side. National sides and a list of made-up clubs are available, and the shirts change to match the team colors.
How a round works
As the striker, you see a three-by-three grid of glowing targets over the goal. Tap the one you want, and a power meter begins sweeping from 1 up to 100 percent and back. A second tap, or a press of Space, freezes it and the ball is struck.
As the keeper, you choose one of the same nine zones before the shot is taken. If the ball goes exactly where you dove, it is saved every time. A dive to the zone next door only sometimes gets a glove on it, and a harder shot makes that less likely.
Strategy notes
- Hit it hard. Power never sends a shot off target, so lock the meter close to the top whenever you can.
- Mind the risky spots. Aim decides misses. Central shots are very safe. A low corner sails wide on about 7 percent of kicks, and a high corner on close to 13 percent.
- Go high against the CPU. The computer goalie rarely picks the upper row compared with the middle and bottom.
- Avoid weak kicks. If the keeper guesses the zone beside your target, a full-power kick is saved roughly once in ten tries, while a soft one is saved about twice as often.
Difficulty and tiebreaks
Easy, Normal and Hard only matter in one-player games. On harder settings, the computer goalie guesses less and figures out your shot more often. The CPU striker also kicks with more minimum power and tends to pick a corner far away from your dive.
A draw after five rounds goes to sudden death. Each side takes one kick at a time until one is ahead after the same number of attempts.
Good to know
The music and sound effects kick in once you tap for the first time. Press M or the note button in the top right to mute them, and use Menu in the top left to leave a match early. The game runs with a mouse, a touch screen or a keyboard, so a laptop, a tablet or a phone all work.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pick a target or a dive zone | — | Click one of the nine zones in the goal | Tap a zone in the goal |
| Lock the power bar and shoot | Space or Enter | Click anywhere | Tap anywhere |
| Continue after a goal, save or miss | Space or Enter | Click | Tap |
| Mute or unmute | M | Click the note button (top right) | Tap the note button (top right) |
| Leave the match | — | Click Menu (top left) | Tap Menu (top left) |
Penalty Kick Showdown FAQ
Is Penalty Kick Showdown one player or two?
Both. Pick 1 Player to face the computer at Easy, Normal or Hard, or pick 2 Players and share one device. In two-player games, the person in goal locks in a dive first, so the shooter should look away until it is their turn to aim.
Can I play it on a phone or Chromebook?
Yes. Every action is a tap or a click, so it runs on phones, tablets and Chromebooks. Keyboard players can press Space or Enter to stop the power bar and move on after each kick. The screen is wide, so turn a phone sideways.
How long does a match take?
A regular match is five kicks per side, with roles swapping after every kick, so it usually wraps up in a few minutes. If the score is level after five rounds, sudden death adds one kick each until somebody pulls ahead.
Are my results saved?
Yes. Finished matches go onto a leaderboard stored in your browser, so your record is still there next time. A button lets you wipe the list whenever you want a fresh start.
